“Developed into a system by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), autonomous morality in effect deifies each person’s free will. In the Kantian understanding of freedom, liberty means not only freedom of choice but freedom of independence, on the assumption that one cannot retain free will and still be under the command of another’s law. To save freedom, Kant demanded autonomy, but by demanding autonomy he destroyed all real obligation and therefore all real law.”

“I tried to immerse myself in destruction. I wanted to prove to myself that destroying others didn’t hurt… By doing every conceivable wrong, I hoped to strip myself of my conscience. I hoped to destroy all the values I had ever held.”